Sun Life

by Colin Marriner

My connection with the club started in about 1965/66 toward the end of a
long decline - I increased the membership by 50% simply by joining! One of the
other members left London shortly thereafter but was soon replaced by a hard
working Irishman called Steve White. He was largely responsible for our
resurgence.

In my own (unsuccessful) efforts to build up a team - our target was the
London Insurance League - I met a few old stagers who reminisced of pre-war
and early post-war glories gained jointly with the Sun Fire Office. When they
merged with the Alliance and the London Assurance the "Sun" Chess Club split.
As most of the strong players worked for the re-named Sun Alliance & London,
the Sun Life side gradually faded away. There were no written records of these
victories, but I later saw the Sun name on more than one trophy from the 1930's
and 1940's.

I went to work in Croydon shortly after but kept in touch and a couple of
years later was invited to play for the re-established team in, I think,
Division 4 of the London Insurance League. When Steve White left I foolishly
took over as captain and general Club dogsbody. As we had only about 6-10
members - it fluctuated a lot - finding a team was always difficult and
sometimes impossible. This was the early 1970's, the winters of discontent,
continuous train and tube strikes when no sensible commuter remained in
Central London a moment longer than was absolutely necessary.

Nevertheless, we were successful. We reached Division 1 in four years,
just failing (by ½ point) to top the League in our last year as a full team
in London. We had taken the K.O. Cup the previous year. We had a strong team,
including a London "Under-21" Champion on Board 2.

The move of our Head Office to Bristol in 1976/77 was too severe a blow.
The top 2 boards left to find other jobs in London, and the rest of us were too
busy with new homes in Bristol. However, the Club was re-formed after a couple
of years - and recent league tables speak for themselves. The Sun name was
added to a trophy for the first time in Bristol last season. League leaders
beware!

1997 postscript: The league leaders did not have too much to worry about and
Sun Life is currently in Division 3. It has recently moved to
play at the company's impressive new headquarters in Stoke Gifford. The club had its
finest hour when it won the National Minor Club competition in 1993. The victorious
team was Gordon Cameron, Martin Ashford, Colin Marriner (the author of the above article),
Gerald Mobbs, and Andy Tonkin. Colin got the decisive wins in both the semi-final and
final!
- JR